The First

Christian Mass
in the
Philippin
es
Figure 1. A detail of Carlos V. Francisco’s painting on the First Mass in the
Philippines.

2
“
Let us find our islands to
die in, far from home, from
anywhere familiar.

Let us risk the wildest

places, lest we go down in
comfort, and despair.

3
MAZZAU
A
THE LOST HARBOR
Magellan’s Westward Route

10 August 1519
Departure from
San Lucar De Barrameda, Spain

16 March 1521
Arrival at the Islands of St.
Lazarus (Philippines)

November 1521
6 March 1521
Arrival at the Moluccas
Arrival at the Ladrones Islands
(Spice Islands)

October 1520
Passage through the Strait of
Magellan towards the Pacific

5
Landing on Philippine Shores

Ferdinand Magellan and his European crew (270 men, mostly Spanish, with
some Portuguese) sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda for an expedition to
search for spices.

➢ These explorers landed on the Philippines after their voyage from other
proximate areas. On March 28, 1521, while at sea, they saw a bonfire which
turned out to be Mazzaua (believed to be today's Limasawa) where they
anchored.

➢ When Magellan and comrades set foot, he befriended the island's sovereign
ruler, Raia Siaiu. on the grounds of Mazzaua, and his brother Raia
Calambu of Butuan.

6
The First Christian Mass in the Philippines

➢ The First Christian Mass in the Philippines was held on March 31,

1521 (Easter Sunday).

￫ It was officiated by Father Pedro de Valderrama, the Andalusian

chaplain of the fleet and the only priest with the Magellan expedition,
along the shores of what was referred to in the journals of Antonio
Pigafetta as Mazzaua.

➢ Today, this site is widely believed by many to be Limasawa at the tip

of Southern Leyte*.

7
The Planting of the Cross in Mazzaua

➢ In the afternoon of 31 March 1521, Ferdinand Magellan instructed his

comrades to plant a large cross on the top of the hill overlooking the
sea.  Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, who recorded the event
said:

"After the cross was erected in position, each of us

repeated a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria,
and adored the cross; and the kings
[Calambu and Siaiu] did the same.“

➢ He then took ownership of the islands where he had landed in the name
of King Charles V which he had named earlier on March 16 as the
Archipelago of Saint Lazarus, because it was the day of the saint when the
Magellan Armada reached the archipelago.

8
2 Events that Define the Meaning of Mazzaua

1 2
The March 31, 1521 The Planting of a Large
Easter Sunday Mass Cross atop the tallest hill of
Mazzaua

Mazzaua is an icon to a deeply religious people, an event of

overarching importance.

9
LIMASAWA
OR

BUTUAN?
A Examination of the
Evidences

10
The First
Christian Mass
in the
Philippines

According to Antonio Pigafetta’s

Accounts in
“The First Voyage Around the World”
The First Voyage
Around The World
The First Voyage
Around the World by
Magellan, written by
Antonio Pigafetta,
provides a full ethnographic
and geographical account
of the one of the most
famous
circumnavigational
voyages ever
conducted.

12
The First Voyage
Around The World
Pigafetta’s
travelogue served as one
of the most important
primary sources in the
study of precolonial
Philippines, including, but
not limited to, the First
Christian Mass in the
Philippines

13
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 16, 1521, Saturday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“We arrived at daybreak in sight of a high island, three hundred

leagues distant from the before-mentioned Ladrones Island. This isle is
named Zamal. The next day the captain-general wished to land at another
uninhabited island near the first, to be in greater security and to take water,
also to repose there a few days.”

14
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 18, 1521, Monday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“We saw a boat come towards us with nine men in it. When these people
had come into this island towards us, immediately the principal one amongst
them went towards the captain-general with demonstrations of being very
joyous at our arrival. When the captain-general realized it, he welcomed them
with foods, drinks, and gifts. In turn, the natives gave them fish, palm wine
(Uraca), figs and two cochos. They were amazed and fascinated with the palm
tree which bore the cochos and wine.

15
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 18, 1521, Monday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“The fleet went to Humunu by its settlers. When the boat reached land,
there they found what I say as the “Watering Place of Good Signs”, because
they found water and some gold in it.

In this place there were many circumjacent islands, on which account we

named them the archipelago of St. Lazarus, because we stayed there on the
day and feast of St. Lazarus. This region and archipelago is in ten degrees
north latitude, and a hundred and sixty-one degrees longitude from the line of
demarcation.”

16
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 25, 1521, Monday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“Being ready to depart from this place, I went to the side of our ship to
fish, and putting my feet on a spar to go down to the store room, my feet
slipped, because it had rained, and I fell into the sea without any one seeing me,
and being near drowning by luck I found at my left hand the sheet of the largo
sail which was in the sea, I caught hold of it and began to cry out till they came
to help and pick me up with the boat. I was assisted not by my merits, but by
the mercy and grace of the fountain of pity.

17
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 28, 1521, Thursday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“Having seen the night before fire upon an island, at the morning we came
to anchor at this island; where we saw a small boat with eight men inside, which
approached the ship of the captain-general. Then a slave of the captain's, spoke
from afar to these people, who understood his talk and came near to the side of
the ship, but they withdrew immediately, and would not enter the ship from fear
of us. So the captain seeing that they would not trust to us showed them a red
cap, and other things, which he had tied and placed on a little plank, and the
people in the boat took them immediately and joyously, and then returned to
advise their king.”

18
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 29, 1521, Friday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“The king, before we went away, was very gay, and kissed our hands, and
we kissed his. There came with us a brother of his, the king of another
island, accompanied by three men. The captain-general detained him to dine
with us, and we gave him several things.

In the island belonging to the king who came to the ship, there are
mines of gold, which they find in pieces as big as a walnut or an egg, by
seeking in the ground. All the vessels which he makes use of are made of it, and
also some parts of his house, which was well fitted up according to the custom
of the country…

19
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 29, 1521, Friday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

... and he was the handsomest man that we saw among these
nations. He was tawny and painted all over. The island of this king is named
Zuluan and Calagan, and when these two kings wish to visit one another,
they come to hunt in this island where we were. Of these kings the
painted king is called Raia Calambu, and the other Raia Siani.”

20
Chronology of Events As Stated on Pigafetta’s
The First Voyage Around the World

March 31, 1521 | Sunday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“The captain sent the chaplain ashore early to preside a Mass, and the
king heard of this and sent two dead pigs but with the other king. At our landing
the two kings were there, and received our captain in a friendly manner and
then we went to the place prepared for saying mass. Before the mass began the
captain threw a quantity of musk rose water on those two kings, and when the
offertory of the mass came, the two kings went to kiss the cross like us, kneeling
like us, and adored our Lord with joined hands. Then he had the cross
brought, with the nails and crown, to which the kings made reverence,
and the captain had them told that these things which he showed them were
the sign of the emperor and that he was charged to place it in all places
where he might go or pass by.”

21
The Evidences for Limasawa
• The Evidence of Pigafetta

• Pigafetta’s Testimony regarding the route

• The evidence of Pigafetta’s Map
• The 2 Native Kings
• The Summary of Evidences of Albo (Pilot of Magellan’s flagship
“Trinidad”) and Pigafetta

22
LIMASA
WA
THE HYPOTHESIS
Pigafetta’s Evidence:
Limasawa VS Mazzaua - A Comparison

Limasawa, Mazzaua (according to Pigafetta’s

Southern Leyte Ambrosian Index)

698 hectares 3-4 leguas or 2213 to 3390 hectares

Latitude: 9°40’N Latitude: 9°56’N

24
Pigafetta’s Evidence:
The Two Native Kings, Raia Colambu and Raia Siani

March 29, 1521, Friday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

“The king, before we went away, was very gay, and kissed our hands, and
we kissed his. There came with us a brother of his, the king of another
island, accompanied by three men. The captain-general detained him to dine
with us, and we gave him several things.

In the island belonging to the king who came to the ship, there are
mines of gold, which they find in pieces as big as a walnut or an egg, by
seeking in the ground. All the vessels which he makes use of are made of it, and
also some parts of his house, which was well fitted up according to the custom
of the country…

25
Pigafetta’s Evidence:
The Two Native Kings, Raia Colambu and Raia Siani

March 29, 1521, Friday

As recounted by Antonio Pigafetta:

... and he was the handsomest man that we saw among these
nations. He was tawny and painted all over. The island of this king is named
Zuluan and Calagan, and when these two kings wish to visit one another,
they come to hunt in this island where we were. Of these kings the
painted king is called Raia Colambu, and the other Raia Siani.”

26
The Summary of the Evidences of Albo and
• Magellan’s expedition
Pigafetta
entered
Philippine waters south of the
island of Zamal (Samar) and
dropped anchor at Humunu
(Homonhon), where they stayed for
a week. Then they sailed westward
towards Leyte and then southwards
parallel to the eastern coast of that
island. Rounding the southern tip of
the latter, they anchored off the
eastern shore of a small island called
Mazzaua (Limasawa). There they
stayed a week, during which on
Easter Sunday they celebrated mass
and planted the cross on the highest
hill.

27
The Summary of the Evidences of Albo and
Pigafetta
• The island of Mazzaua lies at 9°40’N. Its position nearly corresponds to
the position and latitude of the island of Limasawa, whose southern tip
lies at 9°56’N.

• At no point in that itinerary did the Magellan expedition go to Butuan or

any other point on the Mindanao coast. They were only able to go to
an expedition to Mindanao, after Ferdinand Magellan’s death
from the hands of the forces of Lapu-Lapu.

28
BUTUAN
THE CONTROVERSY
The Butuan Tradition

The 17th Century

Father Francisco Colin S.J. (1592-1660)

30
The Butuan Tradition

The 17th Century

Father Francisco Combés S.J. (1620-1665)

31
The Butuan Tradition

The 17th Century

Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri

32
The Butuan Tradition

The 18th Century

Augustinian: fray Juan de la Concepcion (1724-1787)

33
The Butuan Tradition

The 19th Century

Augustinian: Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga (1760-1818)

34
Why Then the Butuan Tradition Existed?

➢ It must be remembered that the tradition is based on second-hand

information. One author repeats (and often distorts) what previous
authors have written, and is in turn copied (and distorted) by subsequent
author. In such a chain, one author making a mistake could easily start
a tradition that could last three centuries.
➢ As suggested by Pastells. Magellan and his men got to know the rajah of
Butuan at Mazzaua. According to Pigafetta,. that rajah was at Mazzaua
only on a visit (The hunting). It could be misunderstood by later historians
as a meaning that he had known him at Butuan.
➢ On the other hand, the Butuan tradition may not have started in Butuan but
in Europe.
➢ The second-hand source could be mistaken in a matter like the site of the first
Mass.

35
The Relevance of The First Mass in the
Philippines
➢ The First Mass, and the place it was held to, is an icon to a deeply
religious people, an event of overarching importance among the
Roman Catholic people and the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.
➢ It is a marker to signify the arrival of the wave of Christianity in the
Philippine Archipelago, and the influence they brought towards the first
settlers of the islands.
➢ It is the event that paved the way for the spread of Christianity in Asia.

36
The End